Page 54 of In Spades

“I, uh, check out on Friday.”

I leaned my head against the wood railing bracketing the three rickety steps to the front door. It groaned and screeched in protest. “I may or may not have looked that up on the booking system yesterday.”

I could practically see that self-satisfied smirk on his face. “Uh huh. And why would you do that, Kristin?” He was teasing and egging me on.

Two could play that game.

“To see when I needed to swap your coffee maker for the one that actually comes with the room.” Something rustled on his end of the call. “Are you in bed?”

“Yep. Tell me about your day.”

“Will,” I said as I suppressed a laugh. “What is this? What are we doing?”

“I don’t know about you, but I was flirting. I guess I’m not doing a very good job if you have to ask. My skills are a little rusty.”

“Your skills are fine,” I said, closing my eyes. A lullaby filled the air around me as the crickets and cicadas sang. “I guess I’m just not good at flirting.”

“What are you going to do when I check out of the inn and you can’t pull the professional boundaries card?”

I never had much use for people who played games. I needed straightforward honesty. Will gave me that, and it was both endearing and terrifying.

“What do you mean?” I asked, buying myself time.

Did I want to see him again? Easy yes. Was my life too complicated for anything other than a little light flirting? Also, yes.

“You know what I mean, Kris,” Will said, moving the phone closer to his mouth as he let out a low laugh. That husky baritone voice of his stirred my dormant lady bits. “You’re too smart to play dumb.”

I snickered. “And here I was thinking you were such a sweetheart. You’re a little bit night-sassy, Solomon.”

“There’s my girl,” he chuckled. “You were getting quiet on me.”

“I’m just tired,” I conceded. “Long night.”

“Maybe you should tell me about it.”

“I’ve just been sitting here, uh—” I started, then clammed up. I’d nearly told him about attempting to pay bills and helping the kids with homework, but thought better of it. “I went to poker night. I’m a little worn out from that. Had too much fun.”

Lie.

Poker at Maddie and Luca’s place may have been fun, but it had also been a weird night. Maybe the planets were out of whack or some mumbo jumbo like that.

I was so excited about Steve and Erica’s baby news. Over the moon, in fact. But I worried about Chase and Bridget.

I didn’t know if Chase would survive her marrying Kyle Kingsley. What would happen to the poker club? Would they both stop coming? Would everyone take sides? I loved them both so much. I couldn’t fathom trying to pick.

“You know, you do this thing,” Will quipped. “You begin to say what’s actually on your mind, pause, then ramble about something trivial.”

“You know, you do this thing—” I mimicked “—where you’re a smart ass”

It sounded like Will sat up. “Remember that time you shared something personal and it didn’t kill you?”

“Hmm. Must’ve been a fluke.”

“You don’t know if it’s a fluke until you test your hypothesis and analyze the data,” he rattled off.

“Says who?”

“Says Aristotle, scientists, and this really annoying teacher I had in middle school.” He chuckled. “Let’s do an experiment. I’ll ask you a question, and you answer honestly. If it kills you, we’ll know you were right.”

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